Digitizing the original screen-used newspaper prop from “Back to the Future”

One of the best parts about working here is that we get to see cool stuff every week, and we recently completed another really neat project. Creekside Digital was selected to digitize the original screen-used Hill Valley Telegraph newspaper prop from the movie “Back to the Future” that Michael J. Fox’s character pulls out of a trash can upon his arrival in 1955 to confirm that he has indeed traveled back in time.

The original newspaper is shown here being captured on our i2S CopiBook HD600 overhead scanner. This equipment allows us to capture items up to 17″ x 25″ quickly and at a very high level of quality, and we use it to shoot quite a number of newspapers, manuscripts, scrapbooks, ledgers, photographs, and other loose and bound items. In addition to the digitization, Creekside Digital was asked to manually retouch out all of the flaws in the images such as wrinkles and yellowing. Soon, pristine reproduction copies of this prop will be available for sale, with proceeds benefiting the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research.

On July 15, 1863, Matthew Brady and his photographic outfit captured this iconic image of three unnamed Confederate prisoners of war. Taken on Seminary Ridge at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, just a few hundred yards from both General Lee’s headquarters and the Lutheran Theological Seminary, this photograph is acknowledged to be one of the finest records of Confederate uniforms ever recorded during the American Civil War. We will be pleased to award this museum-grade reproduction to one lucky librarian who visits our booth at the Pennsylvania Librarian Association Annual Conference – October 1-2, 2012, at Gettysburg PA.

Creekside Digital created a composite uncompressed TIFF master file from the left and right halves of high-resolution scans of the original stereo glass plate negatives (Library of Congress Call Number LC-B811-2288) using the clearest, most-detailed and least-damaged portions of the source images. The composite was then expertly retouched to remove dust, tape, emulsion scratches, and other flaws present in the original image, requiring many hours of manual work. In order to maximize the both D-Max (darkness of black) and overall tonal dynamic range present in the final print, we selected Hahnemühle’s FineArt Baryta paper for use with our 12-color pigment ink reproduction process (using four separate shades of black and gray). This 325 g/sm paper uses barium sulphate in its coating to emulate the look, feel, and depth of black & white prints made using traditional darkroom processes. Multiple proofing strips were run and adjustments made to ensure that subtleties such as shadow detail and folds and creases in the uniforms were retained in various parts of the composite while retaining D-Max and an overall balanced, pleasing contrast. If properly cared for, this archival print will last for over 150 years without fading.

Original, unretouched left and right glass plate negative halves

Finally, the printed image was mounted, double-matted, and custom-framed using quality, acid-free Larson Juhl materials. Creekside Digital is able to create such custom, museum-grade reproductions from items in digital collections, on demand and at any volume, and frame and ship them anywhere in the world.

]]>http://creeksidedigital.com/win-this-print-at-pala/feed/0More Exhibits — FLA and MLA 2012http://creeksidedigital.com/more-exhibits-at-fla-and-mla-2012/
http://creeksidedigital.com/more-exhibits-at-fla-and-mla-2012/#commentsWed, 29 Feb 2012 18:05:53 +0000Creekside Digitalhttp://creeksidedigital.com/?p=1202I can confirm that Creekside Digital will be exhibiting at the Florida Library Association 2012 Conference on April 19-20, 2012 in Orlando, FL, as well as the Maryland (and Delaware) Library Association 2012 Conference on May 10-11 in Ocean City, MD. Our list of conference and trade show appearances is growing — stay tuned for more!

Also, we’re about four weeks away from our frame shop’s official “grand opening” event. Expect special, limited-time discounts on our custom framing services, and maybe some other goodies as well!

– Jim and the team at Creekside Digital

]]>http://creeksidedigital.com/more-exhibits-at-fla-and-mla-2012/feed/0Creekside Digital to Exhibit at MARAC Spring 2012 Meetinghttp://creeksidedigital.com/creekside-digital-to-exhibit-at-marac-spring-2012-meeting/
http://creeksidedigital.com/creekside-digital-to-exhibit-at-marac-spring-2012-meeting/#commentsWed, 22 Feb 2012 16:03:50 +0000Creekside Digitalhttp://creeksidedigital.com/?p=1197Creekside Digital will be exhibiting at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference Spring 2012 Meeting in Cape May, New Jersey. The conference is April 12-14 and we will be exhibiting on Friday, April 13th from 8 AM until 5 PM. Stop by and see us!
]]>http://creeksidedigital.com/creekside-digital-to-exhibit-at-marac-spring-2012-meeting/feed/0Creekside Digital Sponsors LYRASIS 2011 eGathering Annual Member Meetinghttp://creeksidedigital.com/creekside-digital-sponsors-lyrasis-2011-egathering-annual-member-meeting/
http://creeksidedigital.com/creekside-digital-sponsors-lyrasis-2011-egathering-annual-member-meeting/#commentsTue, 01 Nov 2011 16:15:31 +0000Creekside Digitalhttp://creeksidedigital.com/?p=797

We are pleased to be an official sponsor of the LYRASIS 2011 Annual Member Meeting. We’re now in the second year of our partnership with LYRASIS, whose Mass Digitization Collaborative Program has allowed us to deliver terabytes of data and millions of files digitized from microfilm to LYRASIS member institutions nationwide. Now more than ever, it’s critical that libraries make the most of their resources, and LYRASIS helps them do just that.

eGathering 2011: the LYRASIS Annual Member Meeting
Attend either online or in-person
Date: November 9Time: 1:30 – 4:00 p.m. ETCost: FREEPlace: Members can attend either online or in-person at one of six Member Community Site locations or host a group at their location – Click here for more information

Don’t miss it!

– Jim and the team at Creekside Digital

]]>http://creeksidedigital.com/creekside-digital-sponsors-lyrasis-2011-egathering-annual-member-meeting/feed/0Price Drop on Small Microfilm Ordershttp://creeksidedigital.com/price-drop-on-small-microfilm-orders/
http://creeksidedigital.com/price-drop-on-small-microfilm-orders/#commentsMon, 31 Oct 2011 17:50:27 +0000Creekside Digitalhttp://creeksidedigital.com/?p=787Effective October 31, 2011, Creekside Digital has revised its Small Order Microfilm Scanning pricing, which offers flat per-roll pricing for orders up to 20 rolls.Current Flat-Rate Pricing for Small Orders

This price reduction is the result of new improvements to our scanning technology and workflow which allow us to process microfilm more efficiently; hence, we’re able to pass some of these savings onto our customers while keeping quality at the highest levels possible. Creekside Digital QA’s and guarantees 100% of the images we ship, with no exceptions — including our Small Microfilm Orders at this new reduced pricing.

Happy Halloween!

– Jim and the team at Creekside Digital

]]>http://creeksidedigital.com/price-drop-on-small-microfilm-orders/feed/0Creekside Digital is Exhibiting at PaLA 2011http://creeksidedigital.com/creekside-digital-is-exhibiting-at-pala-2011/
http://creeksidedigital.com/creekside-digital-is-exhibiting-at-pala-2011/#commentsThu, 25 Aug 2011 18:20:58 +0000Creekside Digitalhttp://creeksidedigital.com/?p=760If you’re attending PaLA 2011, the Pennsylvania Library Association’s Annual Conference in early October, please stop by and visit us! We’re at booth #309 from 12:00 noon – 5:00 PM on Monday, October 3, and 9:30 AM – 2:00 PM on Tuesday, October 4. It will be our first time exhibiting at PaLA, which this year is being held at State College, PA.

I wanted to pass along this email from one of our new fine art reproduction customers, with her permission:

Hello Jim:

I just received the 8×10 proof “Lakeside Chapel.” I cannot tell you how very pleased I am, except to say I am overjoyed with the job you guys did! This is the quality of work I have been looking for for the past 6 months to no avail.

I am so happy I found your website. Thank you so very much.

We scanned her original 20×24 oil painting using our BetterLight Super 8k system, color-matched it to near perfection, and printed / sealed a proof to canvas media for her. Now we’re in the process of printing several full-size and smaller prints of the work, and she’s getting ready to send us additional (larger) paintings. Pictures soon!

It’s another hot summer day here in Glen Arm: 97 degrees and rainforest-like. We have two larger microfilm digitization jobs which we’re currently seeing through, both of which should be ready to ship by next week. I spent part of today hiding inside in the AC, revising and refitting a lot of the content on our website. Most noticeably, check out the new Frequently Asked Questions section in the navigation area. It’s got new FAQs for Book / Newspaper / Photo Scanning and Fine Art Scanning which are live right now, and others which will be up in the next few days. Essentially, we want to preload the answers to some of the most commonly asked questions about our services, and this is a great way to do it.

Finished 18x24 premium gallery wrap, ready to hang

On the giclée printing side of the house, as first seen on our Facebook page, we’re currently running a summer special for our artists and photographers: for a limited time, 18″x24″ premium gallery wraps on Breathing Color’s Lyve canvas, sealed with Breathing Color’s Timeless UV laminate, are just $99 plus shipping. This is a fabulous deal using some of the highest quality materials available today, for true museum-quality fine art printing. Here’s the way it works: you can send us your images via this link. We recommend selecting image files with a minimum resolution of 3,150 x 4,200 pixels to guarantee sharp, quality printing at this size, and we prefer to receive uncompressed TIFFs; but we’ll accept high-quality JPEGs and PSDs too. We’ll print your images out on Lyve canvas, and mirror the edges of the image in Photoshop so that when the canvas is wrapped and stretched onto the stretcher bars, the image continues around the sides of the wooden frame. Before we stretch the canvas, we’ll seal it with the Timeless product as shown above. Timeless is a premium liquid laminate (gloss or matte finish) which adds a degree of UV and scuff resistance while increasing color saturation and keeping the thin coat of pigment ink from cracking off of the canvas when it’s stretched. Finally, we precisely stretch the sealed canvas onto a wooden frame. The result is a beautiful piece of artwork, ready to hang and enjoy for years to come.

Today, LYRASIS, the United States’ largest regional membership organization serving libraries and information professionals, announced that it has expanded its relationship with Creekside Digital to include preservation-quality digitization of microfiche scanning services as well as additional microform content (such as manuscript collections) to LYRASIS members through the Mass Digitization Collaborative. Here is an excerpt from the press release (full press release on the LYRASIS site here):

LYRASIS to Expand the Mass Digitization Collaborative with New Services

Atlanta, GA, — June 17, 2011 — LYRASIS is excited to announce the expansion of its Mass Digitization Collaborative through partnership with Digital Conversion Solutions (DCS), a division of The HF Group, as well as an expansion of the existing partnership with Creekside Digital.

Previously, the Mass Digitization Collaborative offered LYRASIS members the opportunity to digitize books, serials and microfilmed newspapers for a low fee. “Based on input from our Digital & Preservation Services Advisory Group, we are in the process of completing contracts that allow us to expand the Collaborative to offer new and different formats,” stated Robin Dale, Director of Digital & Preservation Services.

(…)

Based on positive feedback from members, LYRASIS has also expanded their partnership with Creekside Digital, specialists in document and microfilm digitization, to offer preservation-quality microfiche scanning services to members. “After successfully delivering terabytes of preservation-quality images and millions of files to LYRASIS members over the past year, Creekside Digital is pleased to assist in the expansion of the Mass Digitization Collaborative program. The inclusion of content beyond books and newspapers, as well as the eligibility of multiple formats of microfiche, means that we will be able to help even more member institutions convert a higher percentage of the microfilm in their holdings,” stated Jim Studnicki, President, Creekside Digital.

As a result of the expansion in formats, some of the new services will not be eligible for Alfred P. Sloan Foundation grant-subsidized pricing. “We have been able to negotiate very favorable terms with expert service providers for content that falls outside of our Sloan Foundation grant,” added Laurie Gemmill, Mass Digitization Program Manager. “The expansion of the content scope will allow members more options for digitization and additionally, members will have exclusive control over how they make their content available. We’re excited about these new possibilities for our members.”

For more information about the Mass Digitization Collaborative, please contact Laurie Gemmill. Additionally, Robin Dale and Laurie Gemmill will be available to discuss these new services in the LYRASIS Booth #959 at ALA on Saturday, June 25 and Sunday, June 26.

About LYRASIS

Created in April 2009 by the merger of PALINET and SOLINET and joined shortly thereafter by NELINET, LYRASIS is the nation’s largest regional, non-profit membership organization serving libraries and information professionals – providing opportunities for networking and collaboration, offering innovative solutions and delivering significant cost savings through group purchasing for products and services. For more information, please visit www.lyrasis.org.

About Creekside Digital

Founded in 2006, Creekside Digital of Glen Arm, MD specializes in providing archival-quality digitization of microfilm, bound and oversized books, maps, newspapers, and fine artwork, as well as on-site large format photography for libraries, archives, and museums. For more information, visit www.creeksidedigital.com.

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Creekside’s Take on the Announcement

The expansion of our partnership with LYRASIS allows LYRASIS Mass Digitization Collaborative participants to convert microfiche in addition to rollfilm. The following types of microfiche are eligible:

Step and Repeat

Jacketed Fiche

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All microfiche digitization will be performed at 300dpi true optical resolution to 8-bit uncompressed TIFF archival master files. Program participants also receive three derivative files for each frame scanned, including JPEG2000, searchable PDF, and plain text containing the OCR engine’s raw output.

Also, non-Sloan eligible microform materials may now be scanned through the program, including manuscript collections and other types of content besides books and newspapers on rollfilm.